Gennady Zyuganov has attacked the Ukrainian criminal case against him, saying that Kiev authorities were contributing to the country’s breakup much more than himself.

“For the first time some criminals decided to put me on
trial. The criminals who have usurped the power in Ukraine and
who are now raping their country, who issue orders to fire at
their compatriots and who burned dozens of people in
Odessa,” the head of the Russian Communist Party told the
RIA Novosti news agency on Friday.

The statement was made after Ukrainian Interior Minister, Arsen
Avakov, announced that his agency had instigated criminal cases
against Zyuganov and the head of Russia’s Liberal Democratic
Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, over suspicions that they were
financing the federalist forces in the southeast of Ukraine and
thus contributing to the breakup of the country.

“People who are really contributing to the breakup of Ukraine
are Avakov, [State Rada speaker Aleksandr] Turchinov, [Prime
Minister Arseniy] Yatsenyuk and [President Petro] Poroshenko,
whose hands are covered in their countrymen’s blood and who fail
to listen to the voice of the southeast or to the laments of the
soldiers’ mothers,” Zyuganov told reporters.

Zyuganov’s deputy Ivan Melnikov ironically noted that the
Ukrainian probe would do as much harm to Russian politicians as
birdshot does to an elephant. He also said that leading Ukrainian
officials were waging a war against their own people and warned
that “in future, when the Ukrainian people eventually awake
their current leaders will be tried by a court martial.”

On Thursday Russian Communist Party officials also made a number
of harsh statements against Ukraine’s decision to dissolve the Communist caucus in the
country’s parliament, the State Rada.

“The joy of the current State Rada leaders stinks of
impertinence resembling of death squads. But this is just a
temporary triumph. By such actions they will incite all nations
of the world against them,” Ivan Melnikov told the ITAR TASS
news agency.

The senior Russian communist politician said that the leftist
faction of the European Parliament had already condemned these
events and called it a violation of human rights in the official
statement.

Melnikov said the head of the Russian Communist Party had
addressed the leftist parties and movements of the world with a
request to react to the arbitrary actions of the Ukrainian
authorities. “We feel that the support will grow because the
outrage there is obvious. We will continue our fight through the
international institutions,” the politician said.